strong porter

[mountain beer]

i brewed a porter 2-3 months ago. I kegged it. and it is just to strong of a tasting beer.
I used 3 lbs of amber malt
5 lbs of light malt est
.5 lbs of choc malt
.5 lbs of crystal malt
1 oz of chinhook hops
1 oz of tetnagger hopps
1/3 cup of cracked columbian coffee
3 oz of baking chocolate

I dry hopped an oz of northern hops to see if it would mellow out and it is still too strong.

Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions so i can make this brew a more drinkable beer.

[sallad]

how is it too strong? too bitter, too much coffee? figure out what is too strong about it, and make a pale ale that is lacking in those qualities. combine the 2 in your glass for a black and tan!

[YamahaXS]

yeah, what do you mean by 'too strong'?

[mountain beer]

I would have to say it has too much coffee taste in it. I can have about one glass and it taste really good but then it just starts having too much of a coffee taste.

Ive had many proters and thought they had a good taste. I had a 6 pack of samuel smiths taddy porter drank it and thought it was awsome. So i decided to make this.

thanks for your responses
mountain

[YamahaXS]

Originally posted by mountain beer
I would have to say it has too much coffee taste in it. I can have about one glass and it taste really good but then it just starts having too much of a coffee taste.

Ive had many proters and thought they had a good taste. I had a 6 pack of samuel smiths taddy porter drank it and thought it was awsome. So i decided to make this.

thanks for your responses
mountain

3 suggestions.

1) let it age
2) brew up an English Ale, drink yourself silly with black and tans.
3) find friends that like the coffee taste and let them drink it.

of course you could do 1) and 2) concurrently and then decide if you need to bring in 3).

:)

[sallad]

there is one other important lesson in here: uncommon/specialty ingredients should be added in moderation your first time using them. while coffee might have sounded like an ideal thing to put into your beer, it is difficult to really know what the final product will be like the first time you use it. if you use a very small amount of coffee and its too faint, well, you've got yourself a good porter and next time you brew it you can add more. if you add too much and don't like it, now you're stuck with 5 gallons of beer you don't really like... i use this principle with spices, fruit, etc.

[paul84043]

Sallad is right, brew in moderation the first time....
I added a single scoop of coffee to my Guiness clone. I don't think that will be too much for 5 gallons.

I have two problem beers, an Ultimate Porter that has an overpowering molasses flavor, and a Kolsch that tastes great, but didn't carbonate....guess what? They mix together very well to make a fine beer!

[S.F.B.]

It's amazing how strong of a flavor coffee is. I have never used it in my beer. I was thinking about doing an espresso stout at one time. I will definitely start with a small amount if I do this.